Roland Edirol P10 visual sampler

[gmeredith]

Has anyone had a chance to fool around with one of these? Basically an SP404 but for video/audio:

http://www.roland.com/products/en/P-10/

I'm interested myself but thought I'd find some of the pros and cons first. So far i've found that it only puts out 640x480 res instead of HD - a bit short sighted, I think, since it was made in 2009. Another issue is it only has RCA composite/s-video video out instead of VGA.But all in all, seems like a blast! I haven't seen any go 2nd hand yet, they're too new it seems, and expensive ($1400). One day in the future when you can pick one up for cheap they might be an interesting bend project

Cheers, graham

[gmeredith]

Well, a long time after the original post, I finally got one! Bought it directly from Roland as end of model runout sale, $649 brand new! On it's way in the mail as I speak. I'll let you know how it goes when it arrives next week

Cheers, Graham

[wax+wire]

sounds fascinating.  keep us in the loop

[gmeredith]

Interesting to know what could be done to bend it - although I won't be doing that while it's under warranty 

[gmeredith]

Well the P10 just arrived in the mail - the sweet smell of new plastic packaging

Well I haven't had a lot of time to fiddle with it but what i've done so far is exactly what i've been hoping it would do - accurate video triggering. I'm in a kooky electro band that has a robot that sings and dances - his head is an LCD monitor, and his face is animated on the screen, so his face talks and has expression etc. When he sings a part in a song, a video clip is triggered by MIDI and plays on the screen with his face singing in time with the sequenced song (a cheap way to add an extra member to a band!!). When he's not singing, a video clip is triggered with him just looking around, smiling/staring/looking menacing etc.

Up until the P10, we were using a laptop with the library of face video clips being played back using Vjamm software and a MIDI interface on the laptop, run by the sequencer that drives all the synths and drum machines/samples etc. The trouble with the laptop setup is that it is just not accurate enough in its timing - the clips drift out of time and sync to various degrees to the point of being troublesome - he'll be singing his part in a song out of time to the rest of the song sometimes. This actually varies - sometimes he will be in time, sometimes not, so it's been really unpredictable. I'm afraid even using a modern laptop and USB-MIDI interface, the MIDI triggering timing on the laptop just isn't quite accurate enough. So I was gambling on the P10 being more solid and accurate as a replacement when I bought it - and it is! Every time a song is started on the sequencer, the singing and video are in perfect sync with the song sequence - every time! Hurray!

Here is a few photos of Elmer here:

http://www.warningwillrobinson.com.au/index_files/ElmersPage.htm